


The Open Road

by ManiacalShen



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/F, Light Voyeurism, PWP, Porn Without Plot, playful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:47:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29779848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManiacalShen/pseuds/ManiacalShen
Summary: After a short separation, Xena and Gabrielle meet on the road. They really, REALLY missed one another, and their inn is a long walk away.
Relationships: Gabrielle/Xena
Comments: 7
Kudos: 35





	The Open Road

On a slightly muddy trader’s path flanked by verdant, healthy forest, a woman in armor strode with purpose. Long shafts of sunlight lit the path and soaked up the remains of the previous day’s rain, while a jaunty breeze blunted the harsh edge of the sun’s heat. Most would have reveled in the beauty of such an afternoon after days of dreary drizzle and rain.

But Xena grunted in aggravation, eyes flitting to each side, and muttered, “Where is she?” She had sheltered in a quiet, dry inn the night before, but her only companion had been a growing worry that gnawed at her still.

She had not seen Gabrielle in over a week, having separated to run errands in different towns. They were supposed to meet in the middle, at the inn, yesterday. When Xena got there first, she simply ordered a room and a bath and waited, unconcerned. Bathed, and ate, and had a nightcap… and decided that Gabrielle would probably arrive the next morning. She could get caught up sometimes, telling stories or trading scrolls, and that was probably what had happened, since danger was unlikely in this peaceful area. Certainly danger enough to overcome a pair of expertly-wielded sais and a battle-sharp mind like the bard’s.

Surely.

But night passed to morning and morning turned to lunchtime with no bard at the inn. So Xena set off on the road toward Gabrielle’s errand, more worried with each furlong spent without a sign of her. It made her sword hand itch for its hilt, for an enemy to hold accountable - something the traders and tradesmen she had passed so far might have sensed, judging by the way they skirted her on their way to town.

But then, a curve in the road led to the base of a hill, and as she rounded it, a figure appeared at the top. Xena drank in red-brown leather, silvered accents, and short, blonde hair that framed a face she considered closer to “home” than any building. 

* * * * *

Gabrielle loped along the road, skirting puddles and grumbling off and on until she crested a hill - and found Xena at the bottom. They both paused, taking each other in across the gap. Surprise had not arrested their steps, not exactly. She had known Xena would worry when she didn’t turn up for their rendezvous. That her action-oriented lover went looking for her historical trouble-magnet of a partner was no surprise, and Xena was clearly looking for her.

It was just the impact of seeing one another in that moment, unexpected, after being apart. The relief told by the shift of Xena’s shoulders filled Gabrielle’s entire chest, reminding her how much she was loved.

Xena stepped forward and opened her arms, and Gabrielle jogged down the hill to drop her pack and jump into them. Without missing a beat, Xena held her tight around her middle and lifted her off her feet with an exaggerated, happy groan.

“Where were you?” she asked around an audible grin.

On her way back down to the ground, Gabrielle planted a firm kiss to Xena’s lips. She left her wrists crossed behind Xena’s neck as she answered, “The rain made the river wash out that old bridge. Couldn’t find anywhere to ford, either, so I had to swing across on a vine, and it was dark before I found one.”

But Xena was only looking at her lips. “Sexy.” She kissed her and only barely separated to speak again. “Wish I’d’ve seen it.”

Their lips met again, this time melting into slow, familiar exploration; Gabrielle sighed into it as Xena’s strong fingers rubbed tension from her back. And they kept it up. Instead of finding a natural stopping point, relief and gratefulness and sheer passion stoked the flame in turns until Xena’s mouth fell smoothly to her chin, her jaw, her neck.

Mouth now free to speak, Gabrielle asked, “Did you miss me?”

“Mm-hm,” soft lips hummed against her throat.

“Worried about me?”

Gabrielle almost didn’t hear the “Uh-huh” over her own gasp as Xena bit a very sensitive bit of skin.

“I was hungry for you.”

For that pun, Gabrielle pinched her through her leathers and got a “Hey!” and a friendly swat in return. Embrace finally broken, they reflected slightly goofy grins at one another.

Gabrielle knew they should probably go back to town, where their horses and the rest of their belongings were. Get a meal and some rest after tackling the craggy landscape that made her leave her horse with Xena in the first place. Get some privacy, instead of staying on this muddy, common road. But those pale eyes held Gabrielle in place with their heat, and she could not break the gaze to pick up her pack and start walking.

After several still-unsteady breaths, Xena bent to pick up the pack and, abruptly, broke their eye contact to turn and start walking - not along the path, but to its side. Gabrielle followed her into the copse of trees at the corner Xena had rounded, cocking her head in question as Xena tossed the pack behind a large tree. Then she grabbed Gabrielle by her shoulders and pushed her up against the trunk of another. 

Xena searched her eyes ever so briefly before bending down to brush a teasingly light kiss to Gabrielle’s lips. She then backed off just to smirk when the bard gave chase, stymied by the hands pinning her to the tree. 

Gabrielle grabbed Xena’s armor and hauled her close to seal the embrace and erase the smirk. She didn’t know how hidden they really were, with half the path at her back and the other just to her left, out of her sight. But Xena could see that way and hear in both; she would sense anyone who might catch them making out like teenagers.

Probably. If they kept quiet.

They dueled in a languid kind of way for a while. Xena pressed into Gabrielle and left her lips just as quickly to tease her jawline; Gabrielle pulled her back by her breastplate to claim her mouth. They played, rough but loving and punctuated by smiles and puffs of laughter - until Xena quit pinning her shoulders and sent her hands roaming elsewhere. A feather-light trail along her collarbone and throat; a brush against bare rib cage; a squeeze of the hip. In return, Gabrielle let go of Xena’s armor and just wrapped her arms around to enjoy the warm, solid feel of her.

When Xena cradled her jaw, Gabrielle finally relented and let her taste her neck. She consumed it in nibbles and great bites, each soothed by a damp kiss. Once Gabrielle was completely lost in that attention, Xena’s other hand brushed down her front, making her twitch, before reaching her waist and teasing the edge of her skirt until she shifted her hips in want.

When Xena returned to her lips to drink in the passion she had stoked, Gabrielle gripped her breastplate and gave it a little jerk in sheer frustration. She wanted to touch everything under it. But Xena slid her hand behind Gabrielle and over her rear end to start gathering her skirt one finger at a time. The insistent slide of her hand over cloth-covered skin left madness in its wake until she finally reached for skin that ached for the attention.

Wanting to give back some of what she was getting, Gabrielle threaded her hands through the fringe of Xena’s studded skirt to feel the firmness beneath it. But just as she got her hands onto Xena’s underwraps, Xena stepped forward into her, pressing her leather-covered thigh against Gabrielle in a way that brought the first rush of relief.

Gabrielle moaned, and Xena swallowed it in a swift, aggressive press of lips.

Right, they should be quiet. But Xena’s fingertips teased Gabrielle’s thigh… then teased more of it as she reflexively brought it up to hook over Xena’s hip. That brush of fingertips moved along the side of her leg and worked its way back, and farther back still as it went down, and again, until Gabrielle’s bent leg was as high as she could hold it and she strained to give those long arms and blessed, damn fingers access to the dampest part of her underwraps.

Xena pulled away to watch her face as she finally ghosted over wanting, covered skin, and Gabrielle bit her lower lip to quell a whimper. Xena’s expression turned absolutely feral.

A low order, “Turn around.”

“...Wha-” It took the great bard Gabrielle a few extra moments to remember language.

Xena didn’t repeat herself, just steadied Gabrielle by the shoulders as she took a half step back, then encouraged her to turn and face the trunk of the tree. “Put your forearms against it.”

The dim realization that this was getting out of hand did not stop Gabrielle from bracing herself against the tree’s rough bark. Xena rewarded her compliance by molding their bodies together, arms encircling her to squeeze her tight. Gabrielle loved this - to be surrounded, possessed by her lover and able to feel the strength of her along her whole body. Cherished, as Xena pressed a kiss to her shoulder and nuzzled her neck.

Xena gave a gratified hum when Gabrielle pressed back against her heedless of the breastplate digging into her lightly-clothed back. She trailed her hands to Gabrielle’s shoulders, then put her teeth to work at the ties to her brief leather top.

Gabrielle felt air, then Xena’s hands on her breasts, and she couldn’t keep in a moan at finally getting direct stimulation. A corner of her mind reeled in surprise - the two of them regularly got wild **in** the wild, never in view of any roads - but her trust in Xena was absolute. Sure fingers cupped and toyed and squeezed just so. Nipples straining for attention received bold pressure with just the right amount of roughness, again and again in a pattern that sent Gabrielle’s heart stuttering and her body to flames.

But it wasn’t enough, not after all that teasing. Worse, or better, Xena rocked her hips into her partner’s. She had no phallus; it did little to relieve the ache, and the suggestion of the motion and the rhythmic feel drove Gabrielle to give the poor tree a slam of her fist.

“Xena,” she whispered.

Xena squeezed her nipple harder, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. “Shh.”

Xena slipped aside enough to reach down and trail her fingers up the back of Gabrielle’s thigh and over her backside, lifting her skirt up again.

Smoothly, she loosened Gabrielle’s underwraps and pushed them down to her thighs with one hand, leaving her bare to the forest air.

And she finally touched her where she needed to be touched. Gabrielle’s whole body shuddered when sure fingers parted her folds and tested the wetness there. Xena slid two inside and began to fuck her slowly, fondling her breast all the while with her other hand.

Gabrielle was quickly panting, lost in every brush and thrust. Mindless, she pushed back against Xena’s fingers seeking more - more speed, more fingers, deeper, she didn’t care, just more. 

She received a third finger and a hard, abrupt thrust that made her cry out. Xena stopped moving. “All right?”

As much as she could between the tree and Xena’s hand, Gabrielle gave an encouraging wriggle and a whimpered, “Please don’t stop.”

Xena relinquished her breast to tangle her hand in Gabrielle’s hair and tilt her head back. And turned her to bite her ear before she resumed stroking her from inside. The sharpness of pulled hair and the rough bark against the skin of her arms punctuated each steady press of fingers in a swirl of sensation that left Gabrielle feeling trapped and totally unwilling to escape. Xena built the pace and shifted her body to better lend power to it, setting a relentless, steady rhythm.

Just from that hand, Gabrielle felt close to falling apart, and her breathing made it no secret. Little sighs and whimpers escaped, especially as Xena’s free hand moved on to caress her back, to smooth her hair, or to rest on her waist before going back to tug on her hair again.

Xena’s mouth again moved behind her ear, this time whispering, “Ssshhh. Someone’s coming.”

Gabrielle’s heart rate felt like it doubled, and the fingers inside her did not falter in the slightest.

Xena’s other hand moved from her hair to between her legs. “...What if they _found_ you like this?”

And with Xena’s hand barely on her clit, Gabrielle’s orgasm overtook her like a stampede. She went rigid and shuddered all the harder with the effort not to make a sound, grateful for the supportive arm around her middle and the tree beneath her arms. 

* * * * *

“Gaa-bri-elle,” breathed Xena. Once her lover stilled, Xena turned her around and leaned her back against the tree to pant, eyes closed. “I think we found you a new fetish.”

She had rarely seen Gabrielle come like that from little more than penetration. Certainly not this hard. Xena smiled as she leaned in to sample the neck on display. “Unless you’ve been holding out on me?”

Gabrielle kissed her temple and reached to pull her underwraps back up. “Is someone really coming?”

“No.” Xena’s theatrics had been based on a hunch. The way her love had surrendered to her touch right here, unusually vocal, the road at her back, delighted and intrigued her. And she was proud it had worked out.

Of course, now she was hot and wound up herself. Her teeth grazed the tendons near Gabrielle’s throat.

“Ooh, you beautiful liar… thank you.” Gabrielle tangled her fingers in Xena’s hair. “I’m as surprised as you are.” After enjoying Xena’s ministrations for a little longer, she playfully used that grip on Xena’s hair to tug her up into a messy kiss.

“Your turn.” Gabrielle gripped the straps of Xena’s armor and turned them so she could push the taller woman’s back against the tree. Wasting no time, she nibbled and kissed her way from Xena’s jaw, down her throat, and to her chest, paying extra attention to the flesh just above her breastplate. The nips and nuzzling sent pleasant sparks along Xena’s skin.

A jolt followed them when Gabrielle knelt at her feet, one knee resting on the bed of leaves between her boots and her hands trailing down Xena’s sides on the way. She felt up the back of Xena’s thighs before leaning in to kiss the inside, right above the knee armor.

Xena slid her heel sideways to make room, and when Gabrielle’s tongue lazily trailed up the inside of her thigh, she leaned heavily into the tree. Once Gabrielle pushed aside a curtain of leather to lick just short of the apex of Xena’s thighs, breath hot and tantalizing - she pulled back, and Xena almost whined aloud. But Gabrielle was only unwinding the underwraps in her way, so Xena watched with managed impatience until she set the damp fabric aside.

Now bare under her leathers, Xena ran her fingers through Gabrielle’s hair and smiled down at her. “There’s something about a queen kneeling for you…”

Gabrielle smirked back up at her, then took one of Xena’s hands off her head and pushed the heavy leather fringes of the skirt into it. “Just hold these for me, will you, princess?”

Xena obviously did, wanting to keep her path clear.

“Give me this.” She put one hand behind Xena’s knee and tugged her off that foot to sling the knee over her well-muscled shoulder. Off-balance but trusting of her partner, Xena let her, and Gabrielle looked up to catch Xena’s eye and grin before turning her head to start nibbling.

Tooth and tongue on the sensitive skin of her inner thigh sent Xena’s heart cantering, and the sight held her rapt attention. Just barely, she kept her ears open for anyone approaching from the road she could no longer see at all.

The first touch of tongue where it was needed sent a shudder through her; Xena reached up to steady herself with a branch just above head level. Gabrielle lapped at her, sending regular surges of heat through Xena until she pressed her back into the tree and pushed her hips further out to give better access. Gabrielle delved all the deeper at the invitation, seeming to relish every taste.

After a thorough, patient exploration that left Xena’s palm embedded with the bark of the branch she squeezed, Gabrielle’s fingers followed her tongue. Two of them slid into Xena with slow thrusts, long, repeating until her hips twitched to beg for more. Gabrielle chuckled up at her, happy, loving, and then leaned in to resume working with her tongue. She curled her fingers inside Xena and squeezed her lifted leg with her free hand.

Stroked inside and out, bark sharp on one hand and leather scrunched in the other, Xena threw her head back to ride the feeling up, and up, groaning as Gabrielle hummed against her and steadily brought her to and over the edge.

Gabrielle stood up while Xena was still panting and pressed her face into her neck to snuggle close, and Xena wrapped her in her arms. A feeling of deep well-being permeated the embrace. 

After long moments, they separated enough to try and clean up and gather themselves.

“Ready to go to the inn?” Xena asked after, offering her elbow in an impulse. She had already picked up Gabrielle’s pack.

Gabrielle hooked her arm into Xena’s with a smile. “I’m not done with you. But yes, I’m far enough through the haze of lust that I’d like to go back to the privacy of the inn.”

“Get food, get clean?”

“And get our money’s worth out of that bed.” 

Xena tugged her into a stumble and suffered a hip check in retribution as they walked back into the sun.

END


End file.
